The never ending first weekend in India (final part)

Trust me, this weekend that I’ve been writing an inexhaustible amount on does have an ending. After our tour of the Hindu temple in Halebid, we headed to a neighboring town called Belur a place with the temple which supposedly is more beautiful on the inside. We arrived to more soap stone carvers, giving us the same lines that we had heard in Halebid. They must teach a class for these folks, letting them in on all of the tips and tricks for suckering the tourists into giving up some rupees for trinkets of questionable value. They got me in Halebid, I wasn’t budging in Belur, even though I have to admit that these trinkets looked a little nicer (damn it!).

Again we went through the same song and dance of removing our shoes and socks, this time a little more gingerly because our feet were cooked to at least medium rare. The temple was surrounded by a 15-20 foot stone wall, and centered inside a good-sized court yard. The distance from the shaded entrance to through this wall was quite daunting given the 4 PM sunshine baking the soap stone to a scalding temperature. We saw a red mat that led up to the temple, but there was still a lot of stone to cross and the mat didn’t offer that much relief. We basically ran to the mat, then skipped up the steps to the cool greeting that the inside of the temple offered.

I walked in one of the main entrances and was greeted by a seven-headed snake, a statue of one, that is. I was finding that snakes tend to be help up as sacred animals in the Hindu culture, which is a contrast to the Christian, which equates this creature to Satan. In fact I’ve heard that a lot of cultures hold a snake in high regards, perhaps because of its seemingly dual nature. It has the ability to move like water, yet its tongue draws analogies to fire. Even if you look at the symbol of the medical profession, its two snakes wrapped around a staff.

I have to admit that I didn’t pay the inside of the temple much mind, given that I was dragging a bit at the time and it was actually pretty dark in there. Even after standing for a while, my eyes couldn’t quite adjust to the light (or lack thereof), making it difficult to see what was going on in there. A tour guide that appeared to speaking in Hindi perhaps was shining a Bat-signal-like spot light on some areas of the temple. I wish I knew what he was saying.

The outside of the temple was much like the one I had seen in Halebid, with layers of animals representing respected qualities of human and animal kind. Again I was distracted by my baking feet, which were probably moving on to medium, with medium-well not too far away. I was ready to get to back into the air-conditioned car with my shoes and socks back on.

The ride back home had most of us in a trance with heavy eyelids. We stopped a truck stop called “Kamat”, which is apparently a chain in the area. It wasn’t quite like an American truck stop. It didn’t have a bar, or bake potato special or any travel-worn truckers to speak of. It was actually a nice little sit-down restaurant with about 8 people ready to serve us (ok, it was more like 3). We had the paneer tikki masala and some naan, which turned out to be pretty good. We saw a couple families come in for dinner after us. It just didn’t have that trucker feel to it, not that I minded.

And so that was Saturday…Sunday was a little more relaxed, with golf being the only thing on the agenda. I had made some reservations at Eagleton golf club at the advice of an IBM co-worker back in California. He told me I could play 18 with a cart, a caddie and a seven-course meal for around 40 bucks. He was just about right on that. That’s about what it costed me, though we had to settle for a lamb burger at the club house after getting through 18.

Speaking of those 18, what a beautiful course. After driving through the dry geography of southern India, it was nice to be able to see some green grass, fir trees and little ponds (though they also serve as water hazards). The course was a little longer than average length, with plenty of fairway to play in. It still didn’t prevent me from losing a few balls, which kinda pisses me off now because the ones I lost had “Eagleton Golf Club” printed on them. I still have the other ones I purchased which are just some “EV” brand.

It took me a while to get used to having a caddie. We had one for each cart, of which we had two, for the four of us. The caddies road standing up, hanging onto the back. I kept putting my own clubs back and reaching for the next one as my caddie, a 21-year-old named Ravi, shook his head and kept saying, “Let me do that sir” (man I hate being called “sir” – makes me sound old!). The kid claimed to have a 2 handicap, which is excellent, and I believed him. He gave me a lot of instruction that improved some of my shots and he seemed to read the green very well. He was brutally honest with me though when I had some tough holes, saying, “You’re not playing so well right now”. Thanks Ravi.

The temperature rose to a scorching 103, making some of the irons in my bag a little hot actually (first time I’ve seen that). But it was a dry heat and I liked it. It reminded me of playing in Las Vegas with a bachelor party. Everyone else seemed to be losing steam as we played, but I just kept pounding water and wore a hat and plenty of sun screen. I felt great.

Probably the prettiest area of the course was one with the goddess Shiva in the back ground. One of the holes (maybe 15 or 16), I’d call the signature hole. It had Shiva way off to the left and a beautiful dog-legged 5-par strolling right into it. It’s also where I probably hit my best shot, a 4-wood (that’s the biggest lefty club they had) I blasted it about 250 yards. The great shots were few and far between, but I liked that one.

We finished up and rewarded our loyal caddies with a good chunk of rupees (600 or so, each). I wondered what they usually made. I also wondered what the future held for them. I got the impression that Ravi wanted to be a professional, which is a one-in-a-million type of move. Would he still be a caddie there if I returned to that same course in 10, 20 years? If he could live off of the tips and money he made there, which is probably pretty slim, it wouldn’t be a bad life.

As promised, the weekend did end…I finished up Sunday with a jump into the hotel’s pool on the roof, which was actually a lot of fun. The view included the IBM and Microsoft buildings, which are talked about in the beginning of the book, “The World is Flat”, still something I need to finish.

I say that about a lot of books…and writing. ;-)